ELECTION 2016

Biden in Iowa sounds like he's running

Advisers insist address not early version of stump speech

Published: 09/15/2013 at 8:48 PM

(POLITICO) — INDIANOLA, Iowa — Run for president? Who? Joe Biden?

The vice president ostensibly played it cool at Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin’s annual steak-fry fundraiser Sunday, mugging for the crowd about how he can’t imagine why every would make such a fuss about his trip.

But beneath the gee-whiz act, Biden used the high-profile Iowa event, where he shared a stage with Harkin and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, to lean into the themes that would undergird any potential presidential campaign: his reputation as a middle-class warrior, his penchant for telling it like it is and his close relationship with the president of the United States.